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COLUMBIA U. PROFESSOR TALKS ABOUT VAGUE OBAMA FOREIGN POLICY

Friday, 24 April 2009

Professor: “Obama’s election marks the end of the Reagan Era in America”

“Generally, good presidents don’t come into office

with a plan,” author and Columbia University professor Robert C.
Lieberman told students at a packed conference room in Universidad
Católica in Santiago in his lecture on President Barack Obama’s foreign
policy on Wednesday.
As the public seeks to define an “Obama Doctrine,” they have trouble elaborating beyond multilateralism and rhetorical
respect for international law said Lieberman. Perhaps it is a risky time for any president to define his foreign policy.
“He comes into office with tremendous ambitions. If you look at the list of things he wants to do, problems he wants to
deal with, it’s enormously long, long enough to occupy the entire eight years of administration. On the domestic side he’s
got taxes and health care and energy and the environment, and on the international side he has an enormously long list
of things do deal with, messes to clean up, and challenges that the United States faces in terms of its own security and
with its relations with the rest of the world.”
Rather than portend the future foreign policy of the Obama Administration, Lieberman’s lecture focused on the political
context of the administration in light of the entire history of the American presidency.
“Obama’s election marks the end of the Reagan Era in America,” he said. The “collapse in Reaganism,” is the collapse of the
aggressive unilateralism that marked the presidency of Reagan, as well as the Bush regime.
Obama’s tendency towards vagueness, and his avoidance of strong idealism was a characteristic of President Abraham
Lincoln. Known to have said “My policy is no policy,” Lincoln “Never outlined a policy on slavery or suggested the
emancipation proclamation of 1863 before it was issued,” said Lieberman.
Lieberman also drew direct parallels between Obama and Roosevelt, saying that Roosevelt was elected under similar
times of uncertainty and financial crisis, as well as proposing an isolationist foreign policy.
Obama is criticized for making only small steps, such as changing policies on family remittances between the U.S. and
Cuba, and closing the Guantanamo prison. Yet, tackling larger obstacles such as immigration reforms or ending the
embargo on Cuba, will require acts of Congress. But like Roosevelt’s successful “New Deal,” Obama may need to
compromise.
After Lieberman spoke, Chile’s former ambassador in the United States, Andrés Bianchi, commented with general
agreement. He referred to the recent Summit of the Americas, which hinted at the beginning of new relations between
Latin America and North America, after a long time of neglect. Profesor Juan Emilio Cheyre, Robert Durán and Ignacio
Irarrázaval were also present and commented with appreciation for Lieberman’s presence.
Professor Lieberman is the author of Shaping Race Policy: The United Staes in Comparative Perspectives, 2005, and
Shifting the Color line: Race and America in the Welfare State, 1998.
By Maria Grusauskas (editor@santiagotimes.cl)

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